The Ugliness of Government Dependence

And while we cannot say that everyone who accepts help from programs like food stamps does so with an eye to avoiding work indefinitely, we are foolish if we fail to see that many of the people who take food stamps do so because they believe they’ve found the golden goose in “Obama money.” They believe this goose will allow them to live free of charge from now on.

This is ugly in the sense that it is abnormal. And it is abnormal because free people cannot be both free and dependent: we must either be free or dependent. So it’s ugly to see people trade their freedom for a paternal government that promises to meet all their needs for them.

It’s also ugly to see a government that is willing to strip people of all their dignity by trying to meet their every need. Thus one of the greatest problems we face as a nation is the fact that our president and the Democrats in Congress are actually encouraging this dependence. In addition to growing the rolls for long established programs like welfare and food stamps, they’ve extended unemployment benefits to 99 weeks (which means you can go just short of two years without working and receive Obama money to sustain yourself), they’ve started paying for dinners for public school students in some states, and on August 11, 2010, they announced a new infusion of $3 billion in “housing aid” to help “unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure.”

All this and “free” cell phones too? And just think, all they want in exchange for these goods and services is our dignity (although they’d be pleased as punch if we’d give them our votes as well).